tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88915774651398217592024-03-18T23:41:57.586-04:00The Indian Warsearly conflicts between North American natives and settlersA. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-19443981484612960612017-01-18T16:48:00.000-05:002017-01-18T16:53:22.462-05:00The First American Gold Rush<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 54px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">GOLD.—A gentleman of the first respectability in Habersham county, writes us thus under date of 22d July: "Two gold mines have just been discovered in this county, and preparations are making to bring these hidden treasures of the earth to use." So it appears that what we long anticipated has come to pass at last, namely, that the gold region of North and South Carolina, would be found to extend into Georgia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">—Notice in Milledgeville's <i>Georgia Journal</i>, dated 1 August 1829</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Two parties of sixty-one families relocated from Burke County, North Carolina, to the Nacoochee River valley of Habersham County, Georgia, in the early part of 1822.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Until about 1827 North Carolina had been the only site of gold production in the United States. Prospectors followed the veins southward into the mountains of North Georgia, and found that the further south they went, the purer the gold became. The first American gold rush followed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is the universal testimony of those who have worked in the placers of Georgia, that the gold is generally in larger lumps and particles, or is coarser than in the placers of the western parts of North Carolina, in Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties. Mr. Blake also observes that the quality of the gold is excellent, rarely yielding less than 90 per cent., or 900 parts in 1,000, the difference being silver. The standard of gold of the United States consists of 900 parts of gold to 100 of alloy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">... At that time [1829] Habersham was an organized county, but the rest of the gold region was included in the Cherokee nation, over which the United States exercised a supervisory care. The richness of the newly-discovered mines soon brought together a large number of miners from Georgia and the adjoining States. These commenced mining chiefly on the lands of the Cherokees, and on that portion now included within the limits of Lumpkin county, the Chestatee River then being the eastern boundary of the Cherokee nation. This rush for the mines brought into the country thousands of men of great diversity of character, many of them dissipated and regardless of the future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">—William Phipps Blake, Charles Thomas Jackson, <i>The Gold Placers of the Vicinity of Dahlonega, Georgia</i>, published 1859</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">By the late 1820s, on both federal and state levels, white settlement of Indian lands became generally sanctioned, if not outright encouraged. Habersham County, Georgia, had been created from two Cherokee cessions: one in 1817, the other in 1819. By 1830 the General Assembly of the state of Georgia had passed resolutions essentially disallowing Indian self-government, and extended the state's jurisdiction into the Cherokee territory of northern Georgia (as well as into that of the Creeks, further south). The mining of gold in Habersham's Nacoochee Valley also coincided with another new Georgia state law which prevented Indians from bringing lawsuits against white men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"> Sec. 6. Provides that the laws of this State be extended over the territory, and white persons, residing, within the same, shall be subject to the operation of the said laws, as other citizens of said counties. <br />
Sec. 7. From the 1st of June 1830, Indians in said territory, shall be subject to the operations of the said laws, and regulations as the Legislature may hereafter proscribe. <br />
Sec. XV. No Indian or descendant of an Indian, residing within the Creek or Cherokee Nation, shall be a competent witness, or a party to any suit, in any court created by the constitution or laws of this State, to which a white man may be a party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Land within what was once Cherokee territory became a destination for thousands of gold speculators. According to <i>Niles' Register</i>, by spring of 1830 there were four thousand miners working along Yahoola Creek (near present-day Dahlonega, Georgia) alone.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 66, 170); color: #0042aa;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">"The news got abroad, and such excitement you never saw. It seemed within a few days as if the whole world must have heard of it, for men came from every state I had ever heard of. They came afoot, on horseback and in wagons, acting more like crazy men than anything else. All the way from where Dahlonega now stands to Nuckollsville there were men panning out of the branches and making holes in the hillsides."</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;">—</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Benjamin Parks*</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So much Georgia gold was being uncovered in Georgia that Congress, in 1837, chartered a branch of the United States Mint at Dahlonega. Soon after the mint began coinage production and the last of the Cherokee were removed, the reason for both maneuvers began to disappear: the gold was playing out. By the early 1840s it was becoming difficult for miners to make a living washing the placer deposits, and hard-rock gold veins were becoming harder to mine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In 1849 California became the highly publicized destination for gold prospectors. In 1861 the Dahlonegah mint closed its doors. Its building was destroyed by fire in 1878. The most visible remainder of the Georgia gold rush is the gold-leafed dome covering the rotunda of the State Capitol in Atlanta. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Some of the early gold prospectors chose to remain in Georgia, and found other occupations. They built homes, married, and raised children in the hills of north Georgia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">*</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> The Atlanta Constitution</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, 15 July 1894, interview with prospector Benjamin Parks (then in his nineties), excerpt</span></span></div>
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A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-82981433973687957042017-01-14T19:12:00.001-05:002017-01-14T19:13:23.551-05:00The Moores of Abbs Valley<div style="font-family: Georgia; line-height: normal;">
On 21 July 1786, Walter Crockett, County Lieutenant of Montgomery County, Virginia, wrote Governor Patrick Henry the following:</div>
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"I am sorry to inform your Excellency that on the 14th instant, a party of Indians supposed to be about 40 or 50 in number, came to the house of Captain James Moore on Bluestone, in this county, and killed himself, and his whole family, eleven in number, and carried off his whole stock, which was very valuable. They likewise burned the house and fencing, and left several war clubs and arrows and to all appearances are for continuing hostilities."</div>
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In 1928 the descendants of Captain Moore erected a monument of gray limestone and placed upon it a large bronze placard engraved with the following:</div>
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"Erected to the memory of Captain James</div>
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Moore, a soldier of the Revolution having</div>
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commanded a company at Cowpens, Guilford</div>
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Courthouse and Kings Mountain.</div>
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Killed by Indians, July 14, 1786</div>
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TO</div>
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Martha Poage and Jane Moore, wife and</div>
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daughter who were captured and taken to</div>
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Chillicothe, Ohio, and burned at the stake.</div>
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TO</div>
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William, Alexander, Margaret, John, and</div>
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infant children of Captain Moore who were massacred.</div>
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TO</div>
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James and Mary Moore, son and daughter,</div>
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and to Martha Evans, who were captured</div>
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and carried to Canada, held captive for five</div>
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years. Were rescued by Thomas Evans,</div>
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brother of Martha Evans.</div>
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Though he slay me yet will I trust him.</div>
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Erected by their descendants. 1928."</div>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-51460301210025635212017-01-09T18:22:00.000-05:002017-01-09T18:23:01.616-05:00Captain John “Indian Wars” McDowell<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">John McDowell (born 1714), youngest son of American McDowell patriarch Ephraim and surveyor of Borden’s Grant in Virginia, married Magdalen Woods</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> in 1734 while the family was still in Pennsylvania. Like so many of the McDowells, she had made the crossing to America from Ireland with her parents and siblings. John and “Magdalena” had three children together before John’s untimely death at age 28 on 14 December 1742. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">John received his Captain’s commission in the Virginia militia after numerous Augusta County landholders made a direct plea (in desperate need of spellcheck):</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"To the Honorable, William Gooch Esqr His Majestys’ Lieut: Governor &c &c—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sr</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We your pittionours humbly sheweth that we your Honours Loly and Dutifull Subganckes hath ventred our Lives & all that we have In settling ye back parts of Virginia which was a veri Great Hassirt & Dengrous, for it is the Hathins [heathens] Road to ware, which has proved hortfull to severil of ous that were ye first settlers of these back woods & wee your Honibill pittionors some time a goo pittioned your Honnour for to have Commissioned men amungst ous which we your Honnours most Duttifull subjects thought properist men & men that had Hart and Curidg to hed us yn mind of — & to defend your Contray and your poor Sobgacks Intrist from ye voilince of ye Haithen—But yet agine we Humbly perfume to poot your Honnour yn mind of our Great want of them in hopes that your Honner will Grant a Captins’ Commission to John McDowell, with follring ofishers, and your Honnours’ Complyence in this will be Great settisfiction to your most Duttifull and Humbil pittioners—and we as in Duty bond shall Ever pray—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Andrew Moore, David Moore, James Eikins, Geroge Marfit, John Goof, James Sutherland, James Milo, James McDowell, John Anderson, Joabe Anderson, James Anderson, Mathew Lyel, John Gray and many others."*</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Captain McDowell assembled a Company of thirty-three men, including his father Ephraim and brother James. In early December 1742, a similar number of Delaware Indians entered the McDowell settlement in Borden’s Grant, “saying that they were on their way to assail the Catawba tribe with which they were at war.” John McDowell met with the Indians, who professed their friendship for the whites. He, in turn, entertained them for a day and “treated them with whiskey.” The Delawares then traveled down the south branch of the North River and camped for about a week. Besides hunting, they proceeded to terrorize local settlers and shoot loose horses at random. In response to grievous complaints, Captain McDowell’s Company was ordered by Colonel James Patton of the Virginia militia to conduct the Delaware Indians beyond the white settlements. On 14 December 1742 they caught up with the suspect Indians at the junction of the James and North rivers. The Company proceeded to gather the group together and initiate the escort. About half of the Indians were on horseback, the rest on foot. One was said to have been lame, not keeping pace with the company, and had walked off into the woods. A soldier at the back of the line fired into the trees at him, and the Indians immediately began a full-fledged attack upon McDowell’s entire Company.**</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> John and eight of his men were killed. At least seventeen Indians also died. In the battle’s aftermath, to avoid all-out war with the multiple nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, Lieutenant Governor George Thomas of Pennsylvania negotiated the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. Agreement was reached that Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor William Gooch would pay the Iroquois a reparation of 100 pounds sterling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After what came to be called the “Massacre at Balcony Downs,” many referred to the Captain as John “Indian Wars” McDowell. By this time there were numerous McDowells up and down the Great Wagon Road, so it became a way to distinguish him from others in the retelling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">*</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Petition to Lt. Governor William Gooch of Virginia, dated 30 July 1742, </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Calendar of Virginia State Papers</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, i, p. 235</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">**</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Joseph Addison Waddell, </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">, 1902, C.R. Caldwell, Augusta County, Virginia. Specifics of the account are from an 1808 letter sent from Judge Samuel McDowell, son of Captain John McDowell, to Colonel Arthur Campbell.</span></span></div>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-91356916102510017732017-01-08T17:39:00.000-05:002017-01-08T17:40:44.732-05:00Quaker Meadows is "Beshaged"<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">By 1776 Quaker Meadows, the Burke County estate of Colonel Charles McDowell, became a direct target of Cherokee raids, as General Griffith Rutherford of the North Carolina militia indicated in his letter to the new “Rebel” government in Hillsborough. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Honourable Gentlemen,</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I am under the nessety of sending you by express, the Allarming Condition this country is in, the Indins is making great prograce in Distroying and Murdering in the frontiers of this county. 37, I am informed was killed last Wedensday & Thursday on the Cuttaba [Catawba] River. I am also informed that Col. McDowel with 10 men and 126 women and children is Beshaged, in some kind of a fort, with Indins all round them, no help to them before yesterday and they were surrounded Wedensday. I expect the nex account to here that they are all destroyed. … Pray Gentlemen Consider our distress, send us plenty of Powder & I Hope under God we of Salsbury District is able to stand them, but, if you will allow us to go to the Nation, I expect you will order Hillsbourgh District to join Salisbury. Three of our Capitans is killed and one wounded. This day I set out with what men I can Raise for the relief of the Distrest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Your Humble Servant, </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Griffith Rutherford*</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The government at Hillsborough called out the western militia. Help was received.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">[I]n the spring of the year 1776 the Indians broke in upon the frontier settlements on the Catawba when there was a call for men to guard the inhabitants and bring them down to the Quaker Meadows when [Arthur McFalls] volunteered as a private and marched to their relief. And on their march back with the women and children, the Indians attacted [sic] them at the North Fork of the Catawba and pretty sharp action ensued but the Indians give way at last. The whites lost two men killed Captain Reuben White and Sabe Shelton a private & wounded captain Thomas Whitson. The Indians lost eight killed the number wounded not known – this battle was fought in the spring of 1776 he was under Captain John Harden after the Battle they took the women & children down to the Quaker Meadows where he was discharged after being out two weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">—Pension application of Arthur McFalls, excerpt**</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 7.3px; line-height: normal;"><sup></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">*</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Dispatch from North Carolina militia’s General Griffith Rutherford to the Council of Safety, dated 14 July 1776</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">**</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Pension application of Arthur McFalls W91871, State of North Carolina, Yancey County: Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions June Court 1836, excerpt</span></span></div>
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A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-3372485680726812992017-01-07T18:23:00.000-05:002017-01-08T17:23:51.757-05:00Chief Logan & The Porters<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Patrick and Samuel Porter, early settlers of southwest Virginia, were intimately acquainted with Cayuga Indian Chief John Logan. Patrick Porter, while serving under General Lewis on the Ohio River, was approached by Chief Logan who, with a smile, extended his hand to Porter, at the same time saying, "I know you. You are Patrick Porter. I want to be your friend. You don't know me. I am Capt. John Logan. Many times I could have killed you, but would not."</div>
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He then asked Patrick about his son Samuel, but at that moment, he saw Samuel coming towards them. When Samuel walked up, Chief Logan said: "I am Logan, and was your friend. Many times I could have killed you, but would not. You were too good a man. You guarded the women and children, which made me love you and your father." On being assured of their perpetual love and friendship, he then mentioned several occurrences that had taken place in the vicinity of Porter's Fort. One of the incidents recalled was concerning a large, fine horse that was hitched to the fort gate. By some chance, the horse was left there a great while, night coming on in the meantime. Logan, who was skulking near the fort, had watched the horse with covetous eyes. Taking advantage of the darkness, he tried to steal him. Covering himself with a shock of fodder, he began gradually to approach the horse. But just at the moment when he was nearly ready to lay hold of the horse, a child inside the fort fell out of bed, and made such a noise that Logan, fearing discovery, dropped the fodder, and left. "Did you ever notice that shock of fodder?" asked Logan. "Yes," replied Samuel Porter. "The breaking of that child's arm saved your life, Logan; I was on guard at the fortgate that night, and observing the fodder moving toward me, cocked my gun and was in the very act of firing when you dropped the fodder and ran away. I was within twenty feet of you, with as good a gun as was ever fired." Logan replied that the Great Spirit did not let one friend kill another.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: Draper Manuscripts; Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI)</span>A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-71266503319938667242017-01-07T18:16:00.000-05:002017-01-07T22:02:02.698-05:00Frontier FortsThere were eight frontier forts in Scott County, Virginia territory built to provide protection against Indian raids and for use as stopping places for hunters and settlers:<br />
<li><b>Blackmore’s Fort</b>, overlooking the Clinch River, was built by Capt. John Blackmore in 1772. It was attacked by Indians many times and several people were killed or captured near the fort. Daniel Boone was in command of Fort Blackmore and other forts on the Clinch in 1774 while the militia was engaged in the battle of Point Pleasant during Dunmore’s war.</li>
<li><b>Huston’s [Houston's] Fort</b> was built in 1774 on the waters of Big Moccasin Creek by William Huston [Houston] on land assigned to him by Thomas McCulloch. McCulloch had established the first Scott County territory settlement there in 1769, but was forced out by Indians. In 1776 Fort Huston was attacked by an Indian force estimated to be near 300.</li>
<li><b>Porter’s Fort</b> was built by Patrick Porter in 1775 on Falling Creek near present-day Dungannon. He built a grist mill there which was most likely the first mill in Scott County territory.</li>
<li>Other forts were <b>Carter’s Fort</b> located in Rye Cove, <b>Duncan’s Fort</b> on the Clinch River, <b>Dorton’s Fort</b> east of present Nickelsville, the <b>Anderson Blockhouse</b> located near the North Fork of the Holston River and Moccasin Gap, and <b>Kilgore’s Fort</b> built on the waters of Copper Creek west of Nickelsville.</li>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <a href="http://www.virginia.org/wildernessroad/wrCommunity.asp?community=16">Wilderness Road: Virginia's Heritage Migration Route</a>)</span>A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-49807215002508699592017-01-06T18:26:00.001-05:002017-01-06T18:26:15.922-05:00Rabun County, Georgia's Native HistoryAs early as 1760, explorers came to the area of Georgia now known as Rabun County. In the 1700s, the Cherokee population in the area was so heavy that this portion of the Appalachian Mountains were sometimes called the "Cherokee Mountains." Early explorers and settlers divided the Cherokee people into three divisions depending on location and dialect: Lower, Middle, and Over-the-Hill.<br />
There were at least four Cherokee settlements in what would become Rabun County: a Middle settlement called Stikayi (Sticoa, Stekoa) was located on Stekoa Creek, probably southeast of the present-day Clayton. An Over-the-Hill settlement called Tallulah was located on the upper portion of the Tallulah River. There were also two Cherokee settlements of unknown division: Chicherohe (Chechero), which was destroyed during the Revolutionary War, located along Warwoman Creek, east of Clayton, and Eastertoy (Eastatowth, Estatowee) which was located near the present-day Dillard.<br />
Despite the prominence of Cherokee, there is evidence of other Native Americans in the region before them. A mound similar to others across North Georgia (e.g., the Etowah mounds) is located about one mile east of Dillard, Georgia, and is likely a remnant of an earlier mound-building culture known as the Mississippian culture.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(source: Wikipedia)</span>A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-35378729354857577452017-01-06T18:14:00.000-05:002017-01-06T18:19:04.127-05:00The Warriors Path becomes The Great Wagon RoadIn the 18th-century migrations, few trails in America were more important than the Indian route which ran east of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia. This Ancient Warriors Path had long been used by Iroquois tribesmen of the north to travel south and trade or make war in Virginia and the Carolinas. By a series of treaties with the powerful Five Nations of the Iroquois, the English acquired use of the Warriors Path. After 1744 they took over the land itself. The growth of the route into the principal highway of the colonial backcountry was important in the development of the nation. Over this road came English, Scots-Irish, and German settlers to claim land. The Warriors Path led from the Iroquois Confederacy around the Great Lakes through what later became Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Bethlehem, York, and Gettysburg, into western Maryland around what is now Hagerstown, across the Potomac River at Evan Watkins Ferry, following the narrow path across the "back country" (or "up country" or "Piedmont") to Winchester, Virginia, through the Shenandoah Valley, to Harrisburg, Staunton, Lexington, and Roanoke, to Salem, North Carolina, to Salisbury, where it was joined by the east–west Catawba and Cherokee Trading Path at the Trading Ford across the Yadkin River in Rowan County, to Charlotte, then to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where it branches into two routes to Augusta and Savannah, Georgia.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: <i>The Scots-Irish From Ulster and The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road</i>, by Brenda E. McPherson Compton, http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/wagon_road.htm)</span>A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-58357306890156689172017-01-04T16:48:00.000-05:002017-01-05T18:06:17.357-05:00The Paxton Boys<br />
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The 1763 uprising of the "Paxton Boys" was triggered by the Quaker government's perceived indifference to Indian attacks on the Pennsylvania frontier, and by the western district's underrepresentation in the colonial assembly.<br />
The Paxton Boys were Scots-Irish Presbyterian farmers from the area near Paxton Church, Paxtang, who formed a vigilante group in response to the Indian uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys felt that the government of colonial Pennsylvania was negligent in providing them with protection, and so decided to take matters into their own hands.<br />
As the nearest belligerent Indians were some 200 miles west of Paxton, the men turned their anger towards the local Conestoga (or Susquehannock) Indians—many of them Christians—who lived peacefully in small enclaves in the midst of white Pennsylvania settlements. (The Paxton Boys believed or claimed to believe that these Indians secretly provided aid and intelligence to the hostile Indians.) On December 14, 1763 a group of more than fifty Paxton Boys marched on an Indian village near Millersville, Pennsylvania, murdered the six Indians they found there, and burned the bloody cabin in which the killings were done. Later, colonists looking through the ashes of the cabin, found a bag containing the Conestoga's 1701 treaty signed by William Penn, which pledged that the colonists and the Indians "shall forever hereafter be as one Head & One Heart, & live in true Friendship & Amity as one People."<br />
The remaining fourteen Susquehannocks were placed in protective custody by Governor John Penn in Lancaster. But on December 27, Paxton Boys broke into the workhouse at Lancaster and brutally killed and mutilated all fourteen. These two actions, which resulted in the deaths of all but two of the last of the Susquehannocks, are sometimes known as the "Conestoga Massacre." The Governor issued bounties for the arrest of the murderers, but no one came forward to identify them.A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-85742814507599048022017-01-04T16:42:00.000-05:002017-01-04T16:42:14.385-05:00"Gone to Carolina"It is probable that some families left Virginia due to increasing conflict between settlers and Indians. In 1755 attacks by the Shawnee along the frontier increased significantly. In October 1755 Colonel Adam Stephen, one of George Washington's officers, wrote from Winchester, Virginia that the Indians "... go about and Commit their Outrages at all hours of the Day and nothing is to be seen or heard of, but Desolation and murder heightened with all Barbarous Circumstances and unheard of Instances of Cruelty.... The Smoke of the Burning Plantations darken the day, and hide the neighboring mountains from our sight...".<br />
These events were part of the struggle now known as the French and Indian War. During this struggle England and France strove for control of the lands west of the Alleghenies between New Orleans and Quebec. In order to forestall French intent, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent a military expedition under General Edward Braddock to the Valley of the Ohio. Braddock and his men, however, were ambushed as they moved into the Ohio Valley; Braddock was killed, and only a few of his men (including George Washington) survived to make their way back to Virginia. This defeat left frontier settlements in the Shenandoah Valley virtually defenseless, and set off a panic among settlers. Many of the settlers fled to North Carolina at this time. County records of this period frequently identify settlers with the phrase "gone to Carolina."A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-88141991609052997922017-01-03T18:18:00.000-05:002017-01-03T18:18:07.228-05:00The "Shawanoes" & A Motive for WarFrom a speech delivered by a Shawnee chief (possibly Laulewasikaw, brother of Tecumseh) at Fort Wayne in 1803:<br />
<ul>"The Master of Life, who was himself an Indian, made the Shawanoes before any other of the human race; and they sprang from his brain; he gave them all the knowledge he himself possessed, and placed them upon the great island, and all the other red people descended from the Shawanoes. He made the French and English out of his breast, the Dutch out of his feet, and the Long-knives [Virginians] out of his hands. All these inferior races of men he made white and placed them beyond the stinking lake [Atlantic Ocean]. The Shawanoes continued for many ages to be masters of the continent, using the knowledge they had received from the Great Spirit in such a manner as to be pleasing to Him, and to secure their own happiness. In a great length of time, however, they became corrupt, and the Master of Life told them he would take away from them the knowledge which they possessed, and give it to the white people, to be restored when, by a return to good principles they should deserve it. Many ages after that, they saw something white approaching their shores; at first they took it for a great bird, but they soon found it to be a monstrous canoe, filled with those who had got the knowledge which belonged to the Shawanoes. After these white people landed, they were not content with having the knowledge which belonged to the Shawanoes, but they usurped their lands also: they pretended indeed to have purchased these lands; but the very goods they gave for them, were more the property of the Indians than the white people, because the knowledge which enabled them to manufacture these goods, actually belonged to the Shawanoes: but these things will soon have an end. The Master of Life is about to restore to the Shawanoes both their knowledge and their rights, and he will trample the Long-knives under his feet."</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-90251638720411171492017-01-02T17:04:00.000-05:002017-01-07T18:01:45.532-05:00The Moores & the Shawnee (Part 2)From <span style="font-style: italic;">History of the Settlement and Indian Wars of Tazewell County, Virginia</span>, by George W. L. Bickley, M.D., pub. 1852, Morgan & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio:<br />
<ul>In July, 1786, a party of forty-seven Indians, of the Shawanoes tribe, again entered Abb's Valley, Capt. James Moore usually kept five or six loaded guns in his house, which was a strong log building, and hoped, by the assistance of his wife, who was very active in loading a gun, together with Simpson, a man who lived with him, to be able to repel the attack of any small party of Indians. Relying on his prowess, he had not sought refuge in a fort, as many of the settlers had; a fact of which the Indians seem to have been aware, from their cutting out the tongues of his horses and cattle, and partially skinning them. It seems they were afraid to attack him openly, and sought rather to drive him to the fort, that they might sack his house.On the morning of the attack, Capt. Moore, who had previously distinguished himself at Alamance, was at a lick bog, a short distance from his house, salting his horses, of which he had many. William Clark and an Irishman were reaping wheat in front of the house. Mrs. Moore and the family were engaged in the ordinary business of housework. A man, named Simpson, was sick up-stairs.<br />The two men, who were in the field, at work, saw the Indians coming, in full speed, down the hill, toward Captain Moore's, who had ere this discovered them, and started in a run for the house. He was, however, shot through the body, and died immediately. Two of his children, William and Rebecca, who were returning from the spring, were killed about the same time. The Indians had now approached near the house, and were met by two fierce dogs, which fought manfully to protect the family of their master. After a severe contest, the fiercest one was killed, and the other subdued. I shall again use Mr. Brown's narrative, it being quite authentic.<br />"The two men who were reaping, hearing the alarm, and seeing the house surrounded, fled, and alarmed the settlement. At that time, the nearest family was distant six miles. As soon as the alarm was given, Mrs. Moore and Martha Ivins (who was living in the family) barred the door, but this was of no avail. There was no man in the house, at this time, except John Simpson, the old Englishman, already alluded to, and he was in the loft, sick and in bed. There were five or six guns in the house, but having been shot off the evening before, they were then empty. It was intended to have loaded them after breakfast. Martha Ivins took two of them and went upstairs where Simpson was, and handing them to him, told him to shoot. He looked up, but had been shot in the head through a crack, and was then near his end. The Indians then proceeded to cut down the door, which they soon effected. During this time, Martha Ivins went to the far end of the house, lifted up a loose plank, and went under the floor, and requested Polly Moore (then eight years of age) who had the youngest child, called Margaret, in her arms (which was crying), to set the child down, and come under. Polly looked at the child, clasped it to her breast, and determined to share its fate. The Indians, having broken into the house, took Mrs. Moore and her children, viz: John, Jane, Polly, and Peggy prisoners, and having taken everything that suited them, they set it and the other buildings on fire, and went away. Martha Evans remained under the floor a short time, and then came out and hid herself under a log that lay across a branch, not far from the house. The Indians, having tarried a short time, with a view of catching horses, one of them walked across this log, sat down on the end of it, and began to fix his gunlock. Miss Ivins, supposing that she was discovered, and that he was preparing to shoot her, came out and gave herself up. At this he seemed much pleased. They then set out for their towns. Perceiving that John Moore was a boy, weak in body and mind, and unable to travel, they killed him the first day. The babe they took two or three days, but it being fretful, on account of a wound it had received, they dashed its brains out against a tree. They then moved on with haste to their towns. For some time, it was usual to tie, very securely, each of the prisoners at night, and for a warrior to lie beside each of them, with tomahawk in hand, so that in case of pursuit, the prisoners might be speedily dispatched.<br />"Shortly after they reached the towns, Mrs. Moore and her daughter Jane were put to death, being burned and tortured at the stake. This lasted some time, during which she manifested the utmost Christian fortitude, and bore it without a murmur, at intervals conversing with her daughter Polly, and Martha Ivins, and expressing great anxiety for the moment to arrive, when her soul should wing its way to the bosom of its Savior. At length an old squaw, more humane than the rest, dispatched her with a tomahawk."<br />Polly Moore and Martha Evans eventually reached home, as described in the narrative of James Moore. ...<br />It is said that Mrs. Moore had her body stuck full of lightwood splinters which were fired, and she was thus tortured three days, before she died.</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-78573945513392028422017-01-02T17:03:00.000-05:002017-01-07T18:02:28.635-05:00The Moores & the Shawnee (Part 1)From "Indian Tragedies of the Walker Family," by Emory L. Hamilton, <span style="font-style: italic;">Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia</span>, 1974:<br />
<ul>In July 1784 the depredations by Indians began on the family of Captain James Moore when his fourteen year old son James Moore was captured by the Shawnee Black Wolf, his son, and another Indian, when he went to a field to get a horse to ride to the mill. He was carried to the Shawnee towns in Ohio and did not return until September, 1789. The only source I know for details of this capture is Pendleton's <span style="font-style: italic;">History of Tazewell County</span>, and Pendleton lifted much of his material from Bickley's <span style="font-style: italic;">History of Tazewell</span>, published about 1853. Pendleton states:<br /> "In 1785 he was so fortunate as to get away from the Indians, and several years after his return related the following incidents in connection with his captivity:<br />'When we returned from hunting in the spring, the old man (Indian) gave me up to Captain Elliott, a trader from Detroit. But my mistress, Black Wolf's sister, on hearing this became very angry, threatened Elliott, and got me back. Sometime in April (1785) there was a dance at a town about two miles from where I resided. This I attended in company with the Indian to whom I belonged. Meeting with a French Trader from Detroit, by the name of Batest (Baptiste?) Ariome, who took a fancy to me on account of my resemblance to one of his sons, he bought me for fifty dollars in Indian money. Before leaving the dance, I met a Mr. Sherlock, a trader from Kentucky, who had formerly been a prisoner with the same tribe of Indians, who had rescued a lad by the name of Moffett (Captain Robert Moffett had two sons taken by the Indians from a Sugar Camp on the Clinch in 1782, and at the time James Moore refers to him, he was living in Jessamine County, Kentucky, having moved from the Clinch about 1783 or 84 in the same caravan that Mrs. Samuel Scott traveled with.) who had been captured at the head of Clinch, and whose father was a particular and intimate friend of my father. I requested Mr. Sherlock to write my father, through Mr. Moffett, informing him of my captivity, and that I had been purchased by a French Trader and was gone to Detroit. This letter, I have reason to believe, father received, and that it gave him the first information of what had become of me....'It was on one of these trading expeditions (with Mr. Ariome) that I first heard of the destruction of my family. This I learned from a Shawnee Indian with whom I became acquainted when I lived with them, and who was of that party on that occasion. I received the information sometime in the summer after it occurred.<br />'In the following winter (1786-87) I learned that my sister, Polly, had been purchased by a Mr. Stagwell, an American by birth, but unfriendly to the American cause. He was a man of bad character - an unfeeling wretch and treated my sister with great unkindness. At the time he resided a great distance from me. When I heard of my sister, I immediately prepared to go and see her; but it was then in the dead of Winter, and the journey would have been attended with great difficulties. On being told by Mr. Stagwell that he intended to move to the neighborhood where I resided in the following spring, I declined it. When I heard that Mr. Stagwell had moved, as was contemplated, I immediately went to see her. I found her in the most abject condition, almost naked, being clothed only by a few dirty and tattered rags, exhibiting to my mind, an object of pity indeed. It is impossible to describe my feeling on the occasion; sorrow and joy were both combined; and I have no doubt the feelings of my sister were similar to my own. On being advised, I applied to the Commanding Officer at Detroit, informing him of her treatment, with the hope of effecting her release. I went to Mr. Simon Girty and to Colonel McKee, the Superintendent of the Indians, who had Mr. Stagwell brought to trial to answer the complaint against him. But I failed to procure her release. It was decided, however when an opportunity should occur for our returning to our friends, she should be released without renumeration. This was punctually performed on application of Mr. Thomas Evans, who had come in search of his sister, Martha, who had been purchased from the Indians by a family in the neighborhood, and was, at the time, with a Mr. Donaldson, a worthy and wealthy English farmer, and working for herself. ...'"<br />On July 21, 1786, Walter Crockett, County Lieutenant of Montgomery County, Virginia, wrote to Governor Patrick Henry, stating:<br /> "I am sorry to inform your Excellency that on the 14th instant, a party of Indians supposed to be about 40 or 50 in number, came to the house of Captain James Moore on Bluestone, in this county, and killed himself, and his whole family, eleven in number, and carried off his whole stock, which was very valuable. They likewise burned the house and fencing, and left several war clubs and arrows and to all appearances are for continuing hostilities."</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-12706575242904589162008-07-13T18:26:00.004-04:002017-01-07T18:03:15.675-05:00More, re: Jack's CreekFrom <span style="font-style: italic;">Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends</span>, by Lucian Lamar Knight, published 1913, Byrd Printing Company, State Printers, Georgia: <br />
<ul>The Battle of Jack's Creek. On September 21, 1787, there was fought in a thick cane-brake, near the site of the present town of Monroe, a famous engagement between a party of Creek Indians and a band of pioneer settlers. The principal actors in the drama, on the side of the whites, were distinguished veterans of the Revolution, one of whom afterwards became Governor of the State. The attack upon the enemy was made in three divisions. General Elijah Clarke, the illustrious old hero of Kettle Creek, commanded the center, his son, Major John Clarke, led the left wing, while Colonel John Freeman commanded the right. The story is best told in the language of the elder Clarke. Says he, in his report of the battle, dated Long Cane, Sept. 24, 1787: "I had certain information that a man was killed on the 17th of this month by a party of six or seven Indians and that on the day before, Colonel Barber, with a small party was waylaid by fifty or sixty Indians and wounded, and three of his party killed. This determined me to raise what men I could in the course of twenty-four hours and march with them to protect the frontiers; in which space of time I collected 160 men, chiefly volunteers, and proceeded to the place where Colonel Barber had been attacked. There I found the bodies of the three men mentioned above, mangled in a shocking manner, and after burying them I proceeded on the trail of the murderers as far as the south fork of the Ocmulgee where, finding that I had no chance of overtaking them, I left it and went up the river till I met with a fresh trail of Indians, coming toward our frontier settlement. I immediately turned and followed the trail until the morning of the 21st, between 11 and 12 o'clock, when I came up with them. They had just crossed a branch called Jack's Creek, through a thick cane-brake, and were encamped and cooking upon an eminence. My force then consisted of 130 men, 30 having been sent back on account of horses being tired or stolen. I drew up my men in three divisions: the right commanded by Colonel Freeman, the left by Major Clarke, and the middle by myself. Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke were ordered to surround and charge the Indians, which they did with such dexterity and spirit that they immediately drove them from the encampment into the cane-brake, where finding it impossible for them to escape they obstinately returned our fire until half past four o'clock, when they ceased, except now and then a shot. During the latter part of the action, they seized every opportunity of escaping in small parties, leaving the rest to shift for themselves." White states that in this engagement there were not less than 800 Indians. They were commanded by Alexander McGillivray, a famous half-breed. <br />
Colonel Absalom H. Chappell, in discussing General Clarke's account of the battle, makes this comment. Says he: "It is striking to read his report of this battle to Gov. Mathews. No mention is made in it of his having a son in the battle, though with a just paternal pride, commingled with a proper delicacy, he emphasizes together the gallant conduct of Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke, and baptizes the hitherto nameless stream on which the battle was fought, by simply saying that it was called Jack's Creek — a name then but justly bestowed by admiring comrades in arms in compliment to the General's youthful son on this occasion. Long after the youth had ceased to be young and the frosts of winter had gathered upon his warlike and lofty brow, thousands and thousands of Georgians used still to repeat the name of Jack Clarke, without prefix of either Governor or General and to remember him too as the hero of the well- fought battle of Jack's Creek." <br />
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A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-24755699189250074512008-06-29T07:32:00.005-04:002017-01-06T17:58:30.235-05:00Early Burke County, North Carolina, according to Judge AveryExtract from an address on the "Early History of Burke County," by Judge Alphonso Calhoun Avery (1835-1913): <br />
<ul>During the year 1776 the Cherokee Indians as allies of England, crossed the Blue Ridge and invaded the upper part of Burke and what is now McDowell County. They scalped the people, burned the houses and appropriated the live stock along their line of march. It is to be regretted that more of the history of that fearful raid has not been preserved.<br />With very short notice of their danger, the people living along the foot of the Blue Ridge in McDowell and also in Burke rushed to the different forts for protection, and those who without warning, remained at their homes, were killed, after being subjected, in some instances, to cruel torture. Very few women, even, were spared and taken as prisoners.<br />The white men then claimed the country to the top of the Blue Ridge, and had occupied it to the foot, while the Watauga settlement west of the mountains extended South of Jonesboro for some distance. The treaty of the next year was concluded at the Long Island of Holston, and contained a formal recognition of the claims of the whites. There was a fort at the present town of Old Fort, which was built for the Catawbas, as we have mentioned, but was used in 1776 by the whites. Another had been erected in the Turkey Cove, a third where the town of Lenoir now stands, and we suppose that many others were scattered along in the exposed settlements of Burke and Tryon.<br />Old Mrs Hunter, the mother of James Hunter (who formerly lived on Linville where his son Joseph now lives), and grandmother of the late Swan Burnett and Mrs J. Sewell Brown of McDowell county, was scalped by the savages, who appeared at her house without warning. She was left senseless, but recovered, however, lived many years after and raised a large family.<br />The wife of a man named McFalls, who lived in the North or Turkey Cove, was also scalped and terribly disfigured, but recovered to find herself disowned and deserted by her unfeeling husband because her beauty had been marred by her terrible wounds. This same man McFalls was a Tory, and when captured at King's Mountain was led up to a tree with a rope around his neck, but was released at the earnest request of one of McDowell's men who promised to be responsible for his good behavior thereafter, on taking the oath of allegiance to the colonial government. The Cherokees came down Roaring Creek to Toe River and crossed, we believe, into the North Cove settlement first. Colonel Waightstill Avery passed up Roaring Creek, and hearing the war-whoop behind, spurred his horse and galloped across from the head of the creek to the Watauga settlement on Doe River. When he returned with Col. Sharp and others, who, with him, made the treaty of 1777, on Holston, he ascertained from a woman, who had been a prisoner, that several braves followed him for some distance, and desisted only because they suspected that he was trying to lead them into an ambuscade. Gen. Rutherford raised near the close of the summer of 1776 an army of 2,400 men.<br />He probably passed up the old Island Ford road a few miles south of Morganton. He was joined in Burke county by both Joseph McDowell, Sr., and Joseph McDowell, Jr., as well as Col. Armstrong's regiment from Wilkes and Surry. He crossed the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap, went down that river to the French Broad, then, after passing up Hominy, crossed the Pigeon just below the mouth of East Fork, and entered the valley of Richland a few miles above Waynesville. He then marched up that creek, crossed Balsam to Scott's Creek, and passed down Scott's Creek to the Tuckaseegee, which he crossed at an Indian town called Stekoeh, located on the farm of Col. W. H. Thomas, in Jackson county, a mile from Whittier Station. After an engagement with the Indians on Cowee Mountains, he went down the Tennessee river to Middletown, then on the 14th of September he met Gen. Williamson, from South Carolina. He returned by the same route, afterwards known as “Rutherford's Trace,” having completely subdued the Indians and paved the way for the treaty of the next year.<br />Gen. Rutherford, we suppose, followed an old Indian trail, but it is curious to observe how nearly he marked out also the line on which the great highways of the country, first the turnpike and then the railroad were located.<br />Nearly all of the men of the Piedmont section, who afterwards led in the last campaign of 1780-'81 in Western North Carolina, saw their first service under Rutherford in this expedition.</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-85528210576846712122008-03-16T15:26:00.006-04:002017-01-06T17:50:44.014-05:00A Prevalent FearFrom <span style="font-style: italic;">Our Savage Neighbor</span>s, by Peter Silver, published by W.W. Norton & Company, 2007, pp. 58-59: <br />
<ul>Rather surprisingly, the right of at least eventual burial was a basic assumption of the laws of war. As the great Spanish theorist Vitoria had observed, it had been considered a clear right under natural law, even for the corpses of executed criminals, since at least the time of the Israelites: and since "piety is a natural thing, even for the dead . . . [it] is unlawful to abuse their corpses." Unlike those people today who sign up happily for posthumous donations and dissections, early Americans were very far from indifferent about what happened to their bodies after death. When blended with Indians' supposed propensity for mutilating their dead or dying opponents, this dread of posthumous abuse (especially of decaying visibly, or becoming food for animals) accounted for an enormous part of the fear that provincial Americans felt when considering Indian attacks. Their evident fascination with the burning up after death of Indians victims in flaming barns or houses probably sprang, too, from the idea of the dead's being disposed of in horribly unconventional ways. <br />Body-burying expeditions had a central place in newspaper reporting–a place that makes sense when we understand the special power the damaged or unburied dead had to shock and depress colonists. The parties of men who trudged off to find victims and "[Bury them] in a Christian Manner" became vessels for terror. In late October 1755, after William Parsons heard reports of an attack near Easton and went out "to assist in burying the Dead," he wrote two letters unburdening himself of the horror of the trip. His little party, doubling in numbers as it went, heard of another attack nearer by and decided "to go . . . to these dead Bodies" first, which they soon found "lying dead just in the Road" with "all the Skin of their Heads . . . scalpt off." As darkness fell, the members of the party worried that "their Bodies might be torn to pieces" before morning. So they borrowed a grubbing hoe and shovel from the nearest farm and dug the deepest grave they could in the stony ground, putting them both in one grave . . . as we found them with all their Cloaths on."</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-31067337176885995682008-03-07T15:34:00.004-05:002017-01-06T18:01:44.583-05:00The Crawford Expedition<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDzIlYARhZoiKLFOExTVYd5MMsVyrG_zCIvHkguiclsavELtZaWWLZ_t33OEbcS_xmT9Ea6LEtXB1m79jZrQCzZcfiQqjiNliGtNO4mxLwY5GxLyhI0XPR77d0iSxiZm6WhSUmvqdK0VJN/s1600-h/WmCrawford.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="252" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175101249735060210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDzIlYARhZoiKLFOExTVYd5MMsVyrG_zCIvHkguiclsavELtZaWWLZ_t33OEbcS_xmT9Ea6LEtXB1m79jZrQCzZcfiQqjiNliGtNO4mxLwY5GxLyhI0XPR77d0iSxiZm6WhSUmvqdK0VJN/s400/WmCrawford.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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During the Revolutionary War, William Crawford (1732-1782) was commissioned colonel of the 7th Virginia and served with the distinction at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. In late 1777, he took command of the continental troops and militia in western Pennsylvania. After the War, Crawford retired from the military, but his reputation as an Indian fighter soon made him the commander of an ill-fated expedition against the Delaware Indians of Sandusky, Ohio in the spring of 1782. Unfamiliar with the terrain and unable to replenish his troops, Crawford’s army of experienced frontiersman was defeated. Angered by the massacre of neutral and unarmed Indians in the Muskingham Valley by Pennsylvania militia, Indian warriors stripped off Crawford’s clothes, tied his arms around a thick wooden post, and tortured him. Dr. John Knight, a military surgeon who traveled with the Sandusky expedition, witnessed the atrocity: </div>
<ul>"Seventy shots of powder were fired at his body. Indians then cut off his ears, prodded him with burning sticks, and tossed hot embers at him. Colonel Crawford continued in the extremities of pain for an hour and three quarters or two hours longer, as near as I can judge, when at last, being almost totally exhausted, he laid down on his belly; they then scalped him and repeatedly threw the scalp in my face, telling me, 'That was your great captain.' An old squaw got a board, took a parcel of coals and ashes and laid them on his back and head, after he had been scalped. Colonel Crawford then raised himself upon his feet and began to walk around the post; they next put a burning stick to him as usual, but he seemed more insensible of pain than before." </ul>
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After learning of Crawford’s brutal fate on June 11, 1782, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Pennsylvania Packet</span> reported that the state militia was “greatly enraged and determined to have ample satisfaction."</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Source: </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Beyond Philadelphia: The American Revolution in the Pennsylvania Hinterland</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">, by Gregory T. Knouff, John B. Frantz ed., William Pencak ed., Park, Pa: Penn State Press, 1998)</span></span>A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-71403919857262472392008-03-05T18:35:00.006-05:002019-10-23T11:23:42.482-04:00The Battle of Jack's Creekfrom <span style="font-style: italic;">Historical Collections of Georgia</span>, by George White, published 1854, Pudney & Russell, pp.672-673: <br />
<ul>Jack's Creek, in Walton County, [Georgia] is noted for a battle with the Indians, the particulars of which are given in the following letter from General Elijah Clarke to Governor [George] Matthews:— <ul><br />LONG CREEK, Sept. 24, 1787. <br /><br /> I had certain information that a man was killed on the 17th, near Greenesborough, by a party of six or seven Indians; and that on the 16th, Colonel Barber, with a small party, was waylaid by fifty or sixty Indians, and wounded, and three of his party killed, This determined me to raise what men I could, in the course of twenty-four hours, and march with them to protect the frontiers, in which space of time I collected 160 men, chiefly volunteers, and proceeded to the place where Colonel Barber had been attacked. There I found the bodies of the three men mentioned above, mangled in a shocking manner, and after I had buried them, proceeded on the trail of the murderers as far as the south fork of the Ocmulgee, where, finding that I had no chance of overtaking them, I left it and went up the said river, till I met with a fresh trail of Indians coming towards our frontier settlements. I immediately turned and followed the trail until the morning of the 21st, between eleven and twelve o'clock, when I came up with them. They had just crossed a branch called Jack's Creek, through a thick cane-brake, and were encamped and cooking upon an eminence. My force then consisted of 130 men, thirty having been sent back on account of their horses being tired and lost. <br /><br /> I drew up my men in three divisions; the right commanded by Colonel Freeman, the left by Major [John] Clarke, and the middle by myself. Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke were ordered to surround and charge the Indians, which they did with such dexterity and spirit that they immediately drove them from their encampment back into the cane-brake, where, finding it impossible for them to escape, they obstinately returned our fire until half past four o'clock, when they ceased, except now and then a shot. During the latter part of the action they seized every opportunity of escaping by small parties, leaving the rest to shift for themselves. About sunset I thought it most advisable to draw off, as the men had suffered for provisions for nearly two days, and for want of water during the action, but more particularly to take care of the wounded, which amounted to eleven, and six killed. From every circumstance, I am certain that there were not less than twenty-five Indians killed, and am induced, to suppose that had I remained that night, I should have found forty or fifty dead of their wounds by the morning. In short, they were totally defeated, with the loss of their provisions, clothing, and the following articles: a gun, thirty-two brass kettles, thirty- seven large packs, containing blankets, &c. Colonel Freeman and Major Clarke distinguished themselves, and from the spirit and activity with which the whole of my little party acted during the action, I do not believe that had we met them in the open woods, we should have been more than five minutes in giving them a total overthrow. </ul>
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A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-77379599804566506242008-03-05T13:48:00.008-05:002017-01-06T18:17:27.901-05:00"The German Bleeds..," never the Quaker<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBG3JP0AuO4OwQheMUnOKJyT0PrsIjWGtz6mlpc-c-LgNPbHrpY81GMOXxfyOwVtry10_qVe_vUEGL9tz5cEwy1TqNwMsZNSDitmPeH8QrGNKg9GEyLs7UeR06jxGYx0sUSaR5z5ZCZEY/s1600-h/germanbleeds_full.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="303" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174331575152542674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBG3JP0AuO4OwQheMUnOKJyT0PrsIjWGtz6mlpc-c-LgNPbHrpY81GMOXxfyOwVtry10_qVe_vUEGL9tz5cEwy1TqNwMsZNSDitmPeH8QrGNKg9GEyLs7UeR06jxGYx0sUSaR5z5ZCZEY/s400/germanbleeds_full.jpg" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">political cartoon, circulated after the 1763 Conestoga massacre</span><span style="color: #990000;"><br />(click image to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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"The German bleeds & bears ye Furs<br />Of Quaker Lords & Savage Airs<br /><br />The Hibernian frets with new Disaster<br />And kicks to fling his broad brim'd Master<br /><br />But help at hand Resolves to hold down<br />The Hibernian's head or tumble all down"</center>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1760s backcountry Pennsylvania Scots-Irish and German settlers became increasingly convinced that Quaker leaders were encouraging and arming neighboring Indians to brutally attack their families in an effort to make them leave the colony altogether. In 1763 their resentment erupted into violence when the Scots-Irish "Paxton Boys" murdered six Indians at the Conestoga town near Lancaster, and afterward burned their cabins. Subsequent attacks followed in an attempt to wipe out their entire local tribe. The gang threatened to march eastward to Philadelphia killing all Indians in their path. In the image above, one of Pennsylvania's first political cartoons, an Indian and Quaker ride on the backs of German and Scots-Irish settlers as a house in the background is burning. A mother and child lie dead in the foreground. It is true that Quakers provided arms to some frontier Indians. More significantly, upon disembarking at the port of Philadelphia, German and Scots-Irish immigrants were maneuvered by the Quaker authorities into settling the western Pennsylvania frontier. Their presence there provided a strategic defense shield between the gentrified coast and hostile Indian nations, without having to compromise their personal Quaker pacifist principles. </span></center>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-14284071035145123512008-03-05T13:37:00.005-05:002017-01-06T18:03:09.940-05:00David James Dove, re: The Paxton BoysFrom <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quaker Unmask'd, or, Plain Truth</span>, by David James Dove, Philadelphia: Andrew Steuart, 1764: <br />
<ul>WHEN the Indian Incursions last Summer laid waste a considerable Part of our Frontier, by which near a thousand Families were drove from their Places, reduced to the utmost Poverty, and thrown upon the Public-Charity for the Support of their miserable Lives.—How did these meek, merciful, compassionate Quakers (who would seem to monopolize Christian Charity, and all the Tenderness of human Nature amongst themselves) behave on so melancholy an Occasion?–To their immortal Infamy be it known, that when every other religious Society in the City, even the Roman-Catholicks, whom they so much despise, (tho' saddled at the Time with the heavy Expence of building a Chapel) were sensibly affected with the Distresses of the poor unhappy Sufferers, and promoted very generous and liberal Contributions for their Relief and Support. These compassionate and merciful Christians [the Quakers], so easily affected with Pity for Indians, would not grant a single Farthing (as a Society) for the Relief of their Fellow Subjects. Tho' Justice requires we should exempt from this Odium a few worthy Individuals in the City, who contributed on the Occasion; as also a few others in the Town and Neighbourhood of Lancaster, who raised about Thirty Pounds for the same Purpose.<br /><br />WHEREAS when their Good Brethern the Indians (some of whom were well known by Officers now in the City, to have been in the Battle against Col. BOUQUET, and others at the Siege of Fort Pitt, during the Summer) seem'd to be in Danger of receiving their just Deserts from the Hands of a bereft and injured People, no Toils or Fatigues by Night or Day are thought too great, nor no Expence too much to protect those Bosom Friends. Nay, their very fundamental Principles of Non-Resistance, which would never before bend in Defence of King or Country, are cheerfully sacrificed on the interesting Occasion, as a Compliment to perfidious Savages.<br /><br />THE PAXTON PEOPLE'S coming down armed, in a seemingly hostile Manner, is also justly to be condemned,—But whilst we condemn particular Facts, let us not misrepresent the general Characters of these People.<br /><br />Let it be considered, that they had, long before, sent several Petitions to the Governor and Assembly, which, its suppos'd, have been conceal'd by some ill designing persons: And tho' his Honour never receiv'd these Remonstances, yet the distress'd People believ'd he had, and look'd upon themselves as utterly neglected, and their sufferings despis'd by the Government. . .<br /><br />WHAT these People intended by their coming down arm'd let themselves declare. I only observe, that the Manner of their Behavior when they came, did them Honour; as it shew'd them to be brave, loyal and discreet. </ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-38953354283236309422008-03-05T13:26:00.004-05:002017-01-06T18:09:20.684-05:00Benjamin Franklin, re: The Conestoga MassacreFrom <span style="font-style: italic;">A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, By Persons Unknown. With some Observations on the same</span>, by Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, 1764: <br />
<ul>On Wednesday, the 14th of December, 1763, Fifty-seven Men, from some of our Frontier Townships, who had projected the Destruction of this little Common-wealth [Conestoga], came, all well-mounted, and armed with Firelocks, Hangers and Hatchets, having traveled through the Country in the Night, to Conestogoe Manor. There they surrounded the small Village of Indian Huts, and just at Break of Day broke into them all at once. Only three Men, two Women, and a young Boy, were found at home, the rest being out among the neighbouring White People, some to sell the Baskets, Brooms and Bowls they manufactured, and others on other Occasions. These poor defenceless Creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed and hatcheted to Death! The good Shehaes [a Conestoga] among the rest, cut to Pieces in his Bed. All of them were scalped, and otherwise horribly mangled. Then their Huts were set on Fire, and most of them burnt down. When the Troop, pleased with their own Conduct and Bravery, but enraged that any of the poor Indians had escaped the Massacre, rode off, and in small Parties, by different Roads, went home.<br /><br />The universal Concern of the neighbouring White People on hearing of this Event, and the Lamentations of the younger Indians, when they returned and saw the Desolation, and the butchered half-burnt Bodies of their murdered Parents, and other Relations, cannot well be expressed.<br /><br />The Magistrates of Lancaster sent out to collect the remaining Indians, brought them into the Town for their better Security against any further Attempt, and it is said condoled with them on the Misfortune that had happened, took them by the Hand, comforted and promised them Protection. They were all put into the Workhouse, a strong Building, as the Place of greatest Safety. . . <br /><br />. . . those cruel Men again assembled themselves, and hearing that the remaining fourteen Indians were in the Work-House at Lancaster, they suddenly appeared in that Town, on the 27th of December. Fifty of them, armed as before, dismounting, went directly to the Work-House, and by Violence broke open the Door, and entered with the utmost Fury in their Countenances. When the poor Wretches saw they had no Protection nigh, nor could possibly escape, and being without the least Weapon for Defence, they divided into their little Families, the Children clinging to the Parents; they fell on their Knees, protested their Innocence, declared their Love to the English, and that, in their whole Lives, they had never done them Injury; and in this Posture they all received the Hatchet! Men, Women and little Children–were every one inhumanly murdered! – in cold Blood!<br /><br />The barbarous Men who committed the atrocious act, in Defiance of Government, of all Laws human and divine, and to the eternal Disgrace of their Country and Colour, then mounted their Horses, huzza'd in Triumph, as if they had gained a Victory, and rode off – unmolested!<br /><br />The Bodies of the Murdered were then brought out and exposed in the Street, till a Hole could be made in the Earth, to receive and cover them.<br /><br />But the Wickedness cannot be covered, the Guilt will lie on the whole Land, till Justice is done on the Murderers. THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT WILL CRY TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE. </ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-76285124812938738402008-03-05T13:12:00.005-05:002017-01-06T18:04:49.999-05:00"The Quaker Unmask'd"From <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quaker Unmask'd, or, Plain Truth</span>, by David James Dove, Philadelphia: Andrew Steuart, 1764: <br />
<ul>"Friend . . . It is true, we [Quakers] profess to have an Aversion to War: but . . . we secretly rejoice when we hear of whole Settlements murdered and destroyed. . . . And tho' our Malice at present is openly pointed only at the Presbyterians; yet to be plain with thee, we are as much in our Hearts against all who differ from us in Opinion . . . . thee knows it would be impolitic to discover our Resentment to too many Sects at once . . . ."</ul>
A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-6038201326114834902008-03-04T18:09:00.012-05:002017-01-07T18:06:09.044-05:00John Murray & Lord Dunmore's War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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From "John M. Dunmore," <span style="font-style: italic;">Ohio History Central</span>, 2005: <br />
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John Murray, Lord Dunmore was a royal governor of Virginia in the years before the American Revolution. He was born in Scotland in 1732. He came from a noble family and was descended from royalty. In 1761, at the young age of twenty-nine years, he was elected to the House of Commons in the English Parliament. He served for the remainder of the 1760s. In 1770, the Earl of Hillsborough selected him to be the royal governor of New York. Such an appointment was viewed as a great honor and would allow the recipient to garner wealth in England's New World colonies. Dunmore accepted the appointment and arrived in New York in October 1770.<br />
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In late 1771, Dunmore was promoted to governor of Virginia, England's largest and wealthiest colony in North America. He became an instant celebrity and well-respected leader of the colony. The Virginia elites, including George Washington, welcomed him and viewed him as a capable politician. The Virginians' view of Dunmore would change in 1773. In that year, the governor disbanded the Virginia legislature, the House of Burgesses, for supporting persons opposed to the Mother Country. He dissolved the legislature again in 1774. Opposition arose to the governor as he limited Virginians' ability to govern themselves.<br />
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Hoping to regain the support he once enjoyed, Dunmore sought to help the colonists against Native American threats in the Ohio Country. Beginning in 1774, Mingo Indians and Shawnee Indians rose up against white settlers—mainly from Virginia—who hoped to settle in the area. Dunmore also feared that Pennsylvania coveted land claimed by Virginia. To prevent Pennsylvania's expansion into modern-day West Virginia, southeastern Ohio, and Kentucky, Dunmore wished to place Virginia militiamen in these regions. He also hoped to open these lands to white settlement.<br />
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In August 1774, Pennsylvania and Virginia militias decided to end the Native American threat. Pennsylvania soldiers entered the Ohio Country and quickly destroyed seven Mingo villages, which the Indians had abandoned as the soldiers approached. At the same time, Lord Dunmore sent one thousand men to the Little Kanawha River in modern-day West Virginia to build a fort and attack the Shawnees. Cornstalk, a Shawnee leader, sent nearly one thousand warriors to drive Dunmore's army from the region. The forces met on October 10, 1774, at what became known as the Battle of Point Pleasant. After several hours of intense fighting, the English drove Cornstalk's followers north of the Ohio River. Dunmore, with a large force of his own, quickly followed the Shawnees across the river into the Ohio Country. Upon nearing the Shawnee villages on the Pickaway Plains near what is now Circleville, Ohio, Dunmore stopped. From his encampment named Camp Charlotte, Dunmore requested that the Shawnees come to him and discuss a peace treaty. The Shawnees agreed, but while negotiations were under way, Colonel Andrew Lewis and a detachment of Virginia militia that Dunmore had left behind at Point Pleasant crossed the Ohio River and destroyed several Shawnee villages. Fearing that Dunmore intended to destroy them, the Shawnees agreed to terms before more blood was shed. This military campaign came to be known as Lord Dunmore's War.<br />
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As a result of this war, some Shawnee Indians agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) and promised to give up some of their lands east and south of the Ohio River. This was the first time that some of the natives who actually lived in the Ohio Country agreed to relinquish some of their land. In addition, these Shawnees also promised to return their white captives and to no longer attack English colonists traveling down the Ohio River.<br />
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Dunmore returned to Virginia a hero, but he quickly alienated the colonists once again by removing all of the gunpowder in the Williamsburg arsenal to a British warship. Dunmore feared that the colonists intended to use the gunpowder to overthrow royal authority in the New World. By July 1776, patriots had forced Dunmore to flee from Virginia. He spent the remainder of the American Revolution in England, where he again served in Parliament. From 1787 to 1796, he served as the royal governor of the Bahamas. He then retired to England and died in 1809.A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-25448942505193780352008-03-04T17:26:00.010-05:002017-01-05T17:38:14.862-05:00The Moffetts & the PiquaFrom <span style="font-style: italic;">Annals of Augusta Count</span>y, by Joseph Addison Waddell, pub. 1902, C.R. Caldwell, pp. 177-178:<br />
<ul>Col. George Moffett, son of John and Mary Christian Moffett, was born in 1735.—His wife was a sister of Colonel Samuel McDowell. He lived on the Middle River farm, owned for many years past by the Dunlap family, called Mount Pleasant, and built the stone dwelling house still on the place. He was not only prominent during the Indian wars and the Revolution, but was so also in civil affairs, having been a justice of the peace, an elder in the Presbyterian church, and one of the first trustees of Washington College, Lexington. He is said to have been a man of commanding presence, and eminently religious. He died in 1811, aged seventy-six years, and was buried in Augusta church graveyard. His children were John, James McD., Samuel, William, Mrs. General McDowell, of Kentucky, Mrs. Col. Joseph McDowell, of North Carolina, Mrs. Kirk, of Kentucky, and Mrs. James Cochran, of Augusta connty. James McDowell Moffett was the father of the late Mrs. John McCue, and Mrs. Cochran was the mother of Messrs. John, George M., and James A. Cochran. <br /><br />Two of Col. Moffett's brothers removed to Kentucky in 1783, with their half-brother, James Trimble and many other Augusta people. Robert Moffett, one of the two, settled in Jessamine county. He had two sons, John and George, who were captured by Indians soon after their arrival in Kentucky. The ages of the boys were about six and eight years, respectively. They were taken to the Indian town of Piqua, on the Miami river, in Ohio, and John was adopted into the family of Tecumseh's mother. At Wayne's treaty, in 1794, these prisoners were given up, and their father was present with the Kentucky troops to receive back his long-lost sons. George, the younger of the two, was eager to return home; but John was reluctant to leave his Indian mother and friends. He went back, however, with his father, but was restless and unhappy and finally returned to Piqua. There he remained with the Indians till they sold their reservation and removed west of the Mississippi river. <br /><br />The late John A. Trimble, of Ohio, in a letter dated March 31, 1881, and addressed to Dr. George B. Moffett, of West Virginia, says that when he was a child, in 1807, he saw John Moffett, who was then on his return from a visit to Kentucky. He was in the vigor of manhood, dressed in Indian costume and traveling on foot. Mr. Trimble saw him again in 1828, at his home near Piqua. He had lived during his boyhood and youth with Tecumseh, the celebrated Indian chief, and seemed much attached to him. At the time of Mr. Trimble's visit, Moffett had recently married an elderly lady and settled down to civilized life. But in his early life he had an Indian wife. Mr. Trimble says:</ul>
<ul><ul>"I was descending the Mississippi in 1819, and landed at a point below Memphis called Mill's Landing. Mr. Mills, the pioneer settler there, had a trading post with the Mississippi Indians, who were encamped about the post. My brother, Cary Trimble, was with me. Mr. Mills, hearing we were from Kentucky, claimed relationship, his wife being a grand-daughter of Robert Moffett, of Woodford. We were invited to his house and my brother at once recognized Mrs. Mills as a relative whom he had known fifteen years before in Kentucky. She related a strange surprise she had a few evenings before from a very old Indian woman. She had noticed for several days the manners of this woman and her close scrutiny and eager gaze as she would meet her. At last she came up to her, exclaiming : 'Moffett! you are Moffett!' Somewhat startled, she called to Mr. Mills, who understood the Indian language, and he learned that the woman was the repudiated wife of John Moffett, a prisoner among the Indians at Piqua, ' long time ago. The woman said she knew Mrs. Mills from her likeness to her uncle when he was a boy. She said also that she had a son, Wicomichee, a young Indian chief, so called 'because his father left him.'" </ul>
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A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8891577465139821759.post-58367985212728500882008-03-02T17:23:00.004-05:002017-01-06T18:00:20.831-05:00John Harris to Owen Biddle, 1776Paxton, July 29th, 1776. <br />
Sir,<br />
I was informed by two men that came here last week from Sunbury for some Gun Powder stored with me for No. Thumberland Coty, that Two Seneca Indians came to the Great Island on the West Branch of Susquehannah ab't Two Weeks agoe, & that the next day after sd Indians arrived, the Indians in that neighbourhood moved off with their Familys, Effects, &c., & cut down some if not the whole of their Indian Corn; it appears as if they designed to Join the Canada Indians, or such of the Six Nations or other Indian Nations that may chuse to take an active part in the present warr ag't us; the English Officers that made their escape from Lebanon in Lancaster Coty, no doubt did perswade the Indians on their tour up this River, to take up the Hatchet ag't us, You may depend on it that the Indians cannot be kept Neuter, no Treaty or Presents can Prevent their being concern'd in the warr, therefore if a number of their warriors were engaged in our service, it might perhaps, (if not now too late) prevent them Destroying ourselves, our late success in Carolina may encourage the Southern Indians to join us in that quarter, If timely apply'd to, they would be of the greatest service for to assist us to cut off the Northern or Western Ind's, If a general Indian warr shoud Happen, (may God forbid) that an Indian Warr shoud take place, but we ought to use all the means in our power to prevent it ag't ourselves, & if there is now no preventing it, Let the Warr be pushed on with the Greatest Vigour into their own Country, (they Begining first) Surely their Territory of the best lands in America is a fine prize for our Warriors to fight for; the Frontier Co'tys in this Province is in a Deplorable Situation for want of Powder & lead shoud the Indians Break out soon, w'ch I assure you is expected, the present Q'tys of ammunition in sd Co'tys is verry Trifling, proper magazines at Posts of Amunition & provisions ought to be laid up in time for the Publick use (If Wanted) before escorts & a Treble Expence in conveying sd necessary articles to proper places might be expedient. I know the Indians well from my infancy, warr is their delight, & they will be concern'd on some side & Likely both for & ag't us; the Greatest Spirit Imaginable Reigns among us, I hope it may continue to the end of the Present unjust & cruel warr undertaken by Great Brittain against us, it's Quite Right now, for the Hon'ble the Continental Congress to Get all the Foreign aid Judg'd necessary to assist us, a good Fleet especially, superior with our assistance to that of our Enemy's, with Engineers, &c., from my love for my bleeding country, my acquaintance with yr self, knowing yr situation & Influence, is the Reason I make free to write you this long Incorrect Epistle; there is two places in this county I have found by Enquiry that it's Likely Good flints may be made. If you'll please to write me a Letter Informing me any news, you'll please to communicate [through] Lancaster post or first safe conveyance shall take it as a favor. I am Sir, <br />
with the Greatest Respect, your most obed't, <br />
& most Humble Servant, <br />
JOHN HARRIS. <br />
<span style="font-style: italic;"> Directed</span>, <br />
To Owen Biddle, Esquire, in Philadelphia<br />
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<br />A. Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787830123789850730noreply@blogger.com